Selector board



Jan. 21, 1969 s. r. DEAKIN SELECTOR BOARD Filed July 5, 1966 UnitedStates Patent 28,528/ 65 US. Cl. 339-48 Claims Int. Cl. H01r 29/00ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An electrical selector board comprising atleast two superposed crossing sets of rows of socket contacts supportedon insulating material. At each crossing point one socket contact ofeach set is aligned with a socket of the other set, with the sockets ofeach row being spaced apart along a length of strip material. The stripsare transversely bent to form humps between adjacent sockets and toprovide the strips with lengthwise resilience. The supporting insulatingmaterial has holes therein associated with the sockets, and slots may beprovided in the insulating material between the holes for receiving thehumps.

The invention relates to electrical selector boards (sometimes known aspatch boards) of the kind comprising at least two superposed crossingsets of rows of socket contacts, there being at each crossing point onesocket of each set aligned with a socket of the other set, or each otherset. The contacts of each row are usually, but not necessarily,electrically interconnected and they may be integral with one another.At least one, and it may be all, of the contacts at each crossing pointis open at each end to provide a thronghway for a plug which can beinserted into a throughway and extend into electrical connection with asocket aligned therewith. The sockets may be supported on one or moresheets of insulating material. One example of a board of this kind isdisclosed in British Patent Specification No. 934,627, the socketcontacts in this board being resilient.

The present invention provides a selector board of the above kind inwhich the sockets are formed by drawing or pressing up edge portionsaround holes in sheet or strip material.

The sockets may be of rigid construction and be intended for receptionof resilient plug pins, for example pins as disclosed in our copendingapplication (British No. 28,528/65).

In one form of the invention the sockets have the form of tubulareyelets pressed up or down from strip material.

The sockets may be formed in rows along strips of material and thestrips may be transversely bent to form humps between adjacent socketsand to provide the strip with lengthwise resilience.

The contacts may be secured to sheet insulating material by the socketswhich are received, and held, in holes in the insulating material. Thesockets may be held by expanding them into the holes or by turning overor rivetting the rim of the pressed up socket or eyelet.

Some specific embodiments of selector boards according to the inventionwill now be described, by way of example, with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a cross-section through a representative portion of aboard,

FIGURE 2 shows a portion of one of the contact strips used in the boardof FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 shows an alternative form of contact strip,

3,423,716 Patented Jan. 21, 1969 "ice FIGURE 4 shows a portion of aninsulating sheet for use with the strip of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a view, similar to FIGURE 1, form of board,

FIGURE 6 shows an alternative form of contact strip,

FIGURES 7 and 8 show alternative forms of individual socket contacts,and

FIGURE 9 shows a portion of an insulating sheet.

Referring first to FIGURES 1 and 2, the selector board comprises foursheets 10 to 13 of insulating material secured in spaced relation.Secured to the sheet 13 there are parallel strips 15 of contacts, eachas shown in FIGURE 1, the strips being seen in end view in FIGURE 1. Thestrips are formed with socket eyelets 16 which pass through holes in thesheet 13 and are turned over at the rims 17 to secure the strips inplace. Between each pair of adjacent sockets, the strips are bent toprovide transverse humps 19 thereby giving to the strips a limiteddegree of longitudinal resilience to facilitate registration of thesockets and holes.

The sheet 11 has similar rows of contacts, the strips being at rightangles to the strips in sheet 13.

Sheets 10 and 12 have holes 20 aligned with the sockets at each crossingpoint of the strips. Connection tags 21 are soldered to the ends of thestrips on sheet 11.

In use, a resilient contact pin, e.g., as disclosed in our copendingapplication aforesaid, is inserted into a pair of the aligned sockets ata crossing point of two strips to make an electrical circuit orconnection between the strips.

FIGURE 3 shows a contact strip which differs from the strip of FIGURE 2in that the humps 29 are on the same face of the strip as the sockets16. This strip may be used with a sheet 30 as seen in FIGURE 4, thesockets 16 engaging in the holes 31 and the humps in slots 32 or 33according to which way the strip runs. The sheet is equivalent to 11 or13 in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 shows a modification in which only three insulating sheets arerequired. The height of the sockets 36 in the sheet 37 is less than thethickness of the sheet so that the sockets are held out of contact withthe sockets 38 in the sheet 39. The sockets are expanded into grippingrelation on the holes. Integral connection tags 40 are provided in thestrips 41.

FIGURE 6 shows an alternative form of contact strip having socketsprovided by bent-up tongues 46. These tongues pass through rectangularholes in the insulating sheets and are bent over at their free ends togrip the sheet.

FIGURE 7 shows an individual socket contact equivalent to one of thesockets in FIGURE 3. The socket 16 will be held in a hole as in FIGURE 1and the hump 50 will engage in a slot or recess in the sheet to locatethe contact. The contacts will be assembled in rows. A connection tag 51is provided on each socket.

FIGURE 8 shows a contact similar to that of FIGURE 7 except that thehump is omitted and the connection tag passes through a hole in thesupporting sheet.

FIGURE 9 shows an insulating sheet 55 which may be used, for example, asthe sheet 37 or 39 in FIGURE 5. The sheet is of thinner material thansheet 37 or 39 and the effective thickness is increased, to receive thesocket eyelets, by partial shearing of slugs 56, the slugs having holesto receive the sockets.

I claim:

1. An electrical selector board comprising at least two superposedcrossing sets of rows of socket contacts supported on insulatingmaterial, one socket contact of each set being aligned with a socketcontact of the other set at each point where the rows of the respectivesets cross, the socket contacts of each row being spaced apart along alength of strip material, the strips being transversely of another bentto form humps between adjacent socket contacts and to provide the stripswith lengthwise resilience.

2. A selector board as claimed in claim 1 in which the socket contactsare of rigid construction, and said lengthwise resilience provided bysaid humps facilitating registration of the socket contacts of one setwith those of the other set.

3. A selector board as claimed in claim 1 in which the socket contactsare in the form of tubular eyelets drawn up from one face of the lengthof strip material and said humps project down from the opposite face ofthe length of strip material.

4. A selector board as claimed in claim 1 in which the socket contactsof each row are formed by holes in said strip material with the edgepositions of the strip material surrounding said holes being drawn uparound the holes.

5. A selector board as claimed in claim 1 in which the socket contactsare drawn up from one face of the length of strip material, said humpsprojecting up from the same face of said length of strip material.

6. A selector board as claimed in claim 5 in which the insulatingmaterial on which the rows of socket contacts are supported has holestherein for receiving the drawn up socket contacts therein, and saidinsulating material having slots therein between said holes forreceiving said humps in said slots.

7. A selector board as claimed in claim 1 in which the length of stripmaterial providing each row of socket contacts is secured to a sheet ofinsulating material having holes therein, the socket contacts of thatrow being received and held in said holes in the sheet of insulatingmaterial.

8. A selector board as claimed in claim 7 in which the socket contactsare held by expanding them with respect to said holes.

9. A selector board as claimed in claim 7 in which the mouths of thesocket contacts are sunk beneath the surface of the insulating sheet.

10. A selector board as claimed in claim 7 in which the humps arereceived in recesses in the insulating sheet material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 799,748 9/1905 Mills 339-220926,451 6/1909 Addie 339-220 XR 1,215,004 2/1917 Decker 339-220 XR2,582,984 l/l952 Gray 3l7-1l2 2,613,287 10/1952 Gieger. 2,648,054 8/1953Berg 339-277 XR 2,965,812 12/1960 Bedford 33918 XR MARVIN A. CHAMPION,Primary Examiner. P. A. CLIFFORD, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 339-220

